Mrs. Van Slate lived in that end room over there that we will get to in a few minutes. She lived on the main floor so she could put wood in the fire at night and get up early and make breakfast so that when the borders came down from upstairs then they would have a meal waiting for them. I would compare it nowadays to a dormitory; the people lived upstairs and had their meals and a common area to gather on this floor. An interesting thing is that the people that lived here, probably more than half of them were ladies. It was somewhat uncommon for ladies to live on their own and especially at that point in time, it was not common or not socially acceptable for them to be walking alone and unescorted, especially in the early morning or late evening hours. But because this building was located a block or two from the main business area most of the borders that lived here worked in either an office or in a store downtown, so it was acceptable for ladies to walk this block or two to and from the boarding house.
Front Porch Highlights
Listed below are a few of the items in this room that you may be interested in learning more about.